Evening Music

The second opera that I ever saw (when I was twenty years old) was a performance of Tristan at the Met with Vickers and Nilsson. The ovation at its end lasted nearly an hour and I have never been the same since!

Hmmm. Robin Genero(sp?)knows that T&I needs light and space but if she ever directs it,hasn't decided where to place it?!!Gee,Robin,try reading the stage directions written by someone named Richard Wagner.

Place- Aboard a ship.Cornwall and Brittany

Time- A medieval period

"Konzept" directors should realize that the composer is the genius and the director's job is to bring out what the composer wrote and not to try to tell us what the opera "means" (as if they know).T&I on a space ship! Stupid Eurotrash! Let me,the listener,take from the opera what I want.I don't have to be told by directors what they think the opera means which usually is almost totally unsupported by the text.For example, Boheme in 1958? Mimi's CANDLE went out? She dies from consumption with penicillan and free medical care available! Idiotic! T&I is a monumental creation that doesn't need anything but great singers and a great conductor set in the time and place specified by Wagner.

Thank you for the "Tristan Mysteries" exploration of Tristan und Isolde. I am new to that opera and I have been enjoying the webstream of the different versions of it as well as the other music which derives from it. I also enjoyed the round table discussion last night. I particularly liked hearing the recording of Hildegard Behrens singing Isolde. I have the Rene Kollo recording of Tristan and I like his voice very much. Thank you for all of this information about this music.

I could not afford to buy tickets but I will be going to the film of it at BAM this month and this (radio) series is a delicious terrific primer. I am so looking forward to immersing myself in the music that day.